Yet another record has been set with the Rs 2.63 / KWhr bid in the recent auction for wind power projects. Both wind and solar power have achieved record low tariffs. Given such price levels, and also surplus power availability, it is rather unfortunate that oil imports have been steadily rising and the nation has achievedRead More

Power project developers today are facing an existential crisis. Reverse auction competitive bidding process has become the norm for selection of power project developers and the power project development has been reduced to testing the risk-taking ability of the developers. Luckily for the developers, the risk has paid off since the module prices have been steadily coming down.Read More

India has set an ambitious target of 100 GW of solar by 2022 of which about 12.5 GW has been achieved so far. Solar PV has seen record low tariffs of Rs 2.44 / KWhr. Despite the noteworthy achievement that solar PV has attained, unfortunately the present approach of setting up of the solar PV projects in Solar parksRead More

In my earlier post https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/who-makes-hay-while-sun-shines-venkataraman-nagarajan, I had brought out, how, despite lower cost of solar power, none of the stakeholders are benefitting. I had also detailed out a roadmap of how solar projects if set up in a decentralized approach and 15% of the generated power is provided free as royalty power, can greatly benefit theRead More

Is it time to open the Champagne bottles with the record low bid price of Rs 2.44 / KWhr or is it time to sit up and do an in-depth introspection on whether any of the primary stake-holders viz Discoms, End Consumers, Coal Power Generators, Solar Power Developers & Financial Institutions & the solar equipmentRead More

Mr Anil Sardana, a power sector veteran has nicely summarised the challenges being faced by the power sector and possible remedies to revive the power sector in his editorial in ET (http://blogs.economictimes.indiatimes.com/et-commentary/the-target-on-renewable-power-must-be-reassessed/) The key takeaway from the article is that there is an urgent need to boost the power offtake. One of the option suggestedRead More

IT & ITeS – Job creators in Nineties & early 21st century Nineties & early 21st century saw the emergence of IT & ITES as the leading revenue and job creation sectors, which was further enhanced by the evolution of mobile telephony and smartphones. The rapid development in the communication technology and communication devices helpedRead More

India is rich in renewable energy sources and the ease of setting up a RE power plant, financial incentives & zero fuel risk has led to a rapid addition of RE power plants so much so that the inherent weaknesses of RE power mainly it’s intermittency, uncertainty and the higher cost vis-à-vis conventional power costRead More

“Utility Death Spiral” was a hotly debated topic in the US, following the 2013 report of Edison Electric Institute prediction that the widespread adoption of renewable energy (especially on-site electricity generation) will destroy the traditional utility business model that power companies had been using for all these years. The “death spiral” for utilities was predictedRead More

India’s National Solar Mission has been a huge success and has achieved the goal of reaching grid parity six years ahead of the scheduled year of 2022. The sector has however become a victim of it’s own success. The severe competition amongst the investor-developers for getting the project has resulted in low tariff levels resultingRead More